The phrase ‘The French of England’ was first developed some 15 years ago with the appearance of the influential volume of essays, Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: The French of England, c. 1100–c. 1500, edited by Jocelyn Wogan-Browne of Fordham University and her team of collaborators. The project website states that:
‘‘The French of England’ is a term originally designed to challenge easy equations of England with English and to create more attention to a large strand of England’s multilingual culture. … Our new term with its restriction to ‘England’ is designed to suggest that British Frenches cannot be adequately considered through English perspectives: if there is a French of England, there are also Frenches of Wales, Ireland, Scotland, each having its own distinctive history while also participating in the wider stories of French in medieval Europe.’ (https://frenchofengland.ace.fordham.edu)
For three days last week, we were delighted to welcome delegates from across the UK, Europe, and North America, joining both online and in person, to a gloriously sunny Bristol for The French of the Celtic Worlds Conference. Our aim was to bring together specialists in medieval Celtic and French studies in order to take up the invitation extended by The French of England project to think about what the Frenches of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Brittany, and Cornwall would look like. What are their specific contexts, trajectories, and dynamics? What methodological challenges and opportunities are at stake in them? What might be their wider implications for the linguistic, cultural, and political histories of our modern nation states, sub-states, and regions?
We were privileged to open the conference with welcome addresses from Professor Helen Simpson, Associate Pro Vice Chancellor (Research and Innovation) at the University of Bristol and Dr Tristan Kay, Co-Director of the UoB Centre for Medieval Studies.
These set the scene for a wonderful programme of wide-ranging papers exploring the complexities of the Celtic contexts of medieval French in its literary and administrative functions. It is impossible to highlight individual contributions, but we were especially pleased to welcome two keynote speakers, internationally renowned for their pioneering work in this area.
The first was Dr Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan, Honorary Fellow at University of Wales Trinity St Davids and formerly Head of Manuscripts and Visual Images, National Library of Wales. Dr Lloyd-Morgan’s lecture, ‘In Search of French Manuscripts in Medieval Wales’, took us on a fascinating tour of the French texts that were circulating in medieval Wales, as attested in various records and translations.
Our second keynote was delivered by Professor Keith Busby, Douglas Kelly Professor of Medieval French Emeritus, University of Wisconsin–Madison and Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America. Professor Busby’s lecture, ‘French in Medieval Ireland and the Serendipity of Scholarship’, retraced the development of his work on what he famously termed ‘medieval Francophonia’ and, in particular, his interest in its Irish contexts. Professor Busby’s lecture was followed by the launch of a (second!) Festschrift in his honour, Medieval French on the Move, and we were delighted to be joined by contributors and friends, online and in person, to celebrate.
The conference organisers would like to express their sincerest thanks to all the speakers and attendees for their participation in the conference. We look forward to many more illuminating conversations in the future.
The French of the Celtic Worlds Conference was a joint output of ‘Mapping the March: Medieval Wales and England, c. 1282–1550’ (ERC–UKRI) and Dr Luciana Cordo Russo’s project ‘Charlemagne in Wales: The Transmission, Reception, and Translation of Charlemagne Narratives in Medieval Wales’ (British Academy Newton International Fellowship). For additional funding, we are grateful to the University of Bristol Faculty of Arts, Law, and Social Sciences, the Society for French Studies UK, and the International Courtly Literature Society (British & Irish Branch). The launch of Medieval French on the Move was organised in collaboration with Professor Leah Tether (University of Bristol) with the support of De Gruyter.
All photos © Matías Repetto Bonpland (https://www.mrbphotojournalist.com/)